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Realistic Resolutions From Dr. Oz

David M. Russell/Harpo Inc., via Associated PressDr. Mehmet Oz during a taping of his TV show in August.

This is the time of year when many people declare New Year’s resolutions to lose weight or exercise. But such broad resolutions aimed at better health are often tough to follow. I asked Dr. Mehmet Oz, host of “The Dr. Oz Show” and director of the Cardiovascular Institute and Complementary Medicine Program at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, to share his ideas for simple and practical resolutions you can keep. Here they are:

1. Commit to family night. Resolve to eat as a family once a week, Dr. Oz advises. Studies from the University of Minnesota, Harvard and Rutgers have looked at the family eating habits of nearly 40,000 middle-school students and teenagers. The research has shown that children who regularly have meals with their parents eat more fruits, vegetables and calcium-rich foods, ingest more vitamins and nutrients and consume less junk food. Some of the research has shown that children who regularly sit down to a family meal are at lower risk for behaviors like smoking and drug and alcohol use. “The cousin of this is to cook with kids that night,” Dr. Oz said. “It’s not just getting home early enough to do it, but planning foods where kids can actually play a role.”

2. Do seven minutes of yoga a day. “I tell most folks that if you haven’t tried it, at least do one class of yoga to understand what it’s about,” Dr. Oz said. “The most important thing about yoga isn’t about how loose you are. It’s not about showing off how you can get into pretzel-like poses. It’s about focusing on the breath while you get into those poses and the relaxed state of mind that goes into it.” He said he committed to just seven minutes of yoga each morning that included a variation on the sun salutation, a flowing series of 12 poses. He adds 20 push-ups between each stage and ends with jackknife sit-ups. “It centers me and allows me to loosen my limbs up so I don’t have nagging small injuries,” he said. “Most people aren’t brazen enough to admit they can’t carve out seven minutes in their schedule.”

3. Go to bed earlier. Adults who don’t get enough sleep are at higher risk for heart attack, stroke and obesity than those who are well rested. So a simple resolution for an earlier bedtime is the first step toward better health. To find out what time you should go to bed, Dr. Oz suggests choosing a wake-up time and working back by seven and a half hours. If you need to be up by 5:45 a.m., then you should turn off electronics by 10:15 p.m. and head to bed soon after. “I feel very strongly about this,” Dr. Oz said. “It’s the one thing I don’t sacrifice at all.”

4. Always keep nuts or a healthful snack in your purse or pocket. Having a healthful snack at the ready will help keep you from overeating. “I like nuts because they’re easy to transport,” Dr. Oz said. “They’re a whole food. They’re affordable. They’ve got fiber and protein. I snack on them whenever I get hungry.”

5. Make space in front of your television. Making a resolution to stop watching television is “foolish,” Dr. Oz said, because most people won’t be able to stick to it. Instead, use your television time to improve your health. Move the sofa back and make a space for doing sit-ups or stretches. Or move a treadmill or exercise bike near the television. “Move the couch out from in front of the television so when you watch the TV, you can do something besides sit on the couch,” he said.

6. Floss. Regular flossing may reduce the risk for heart attack and lower inflammation throughout the body. “People say they floss, but they don’t,” he said.

7. Get a pedometer. Simply wearing a pedometer will get you thinking more about how active you are on a daily basis. “Your aim is 10,000 steps a day,” he said. “If you can’t get there, do whatever you can do.”

8. Find an e-mail buddy. “Whatever your resolution is, publicize it and brag about it,” Dr. Oz said. “Find an e-mail buddy, and use the daily back and forth to keep each other honest.”

9. Give it two weeks. Whatever your resolution, commit to doing it for at least two weeks. “Two weeks is what your brain needs to reprocess the way it makes decisions,” he said.

I agree with #3. As an eye doctor one of the first things I suggest to my patients is get more sleep. It gives the eyes a chance to restore the ocular surface health (dry eyes etc) so that you wake up with healthier eyes and ready to conquer the day. Not to mention, people who sleep less than 8 hours per night are 3 times more likely to develop a cold than those who sleep more than 8 hours a night. Put the book down, turn off the computer and get some sleep.

Dr. Oz really needs to come out from behind the curtain. (Yeah, I know everyone was just waiting for that pun :-)) A lot of his recommendation just don’t make sense out here in the mundane world. Eat as a family? Sure, that’s real good advice for all us single folks. Seven minutes of yoga a day? Sure, right after my seven minutes of studying brain surgery :-)

As someone who finds goal setting and tracking helpful in my life, I think the above list is pretty good. Making smaller changes in the right direction, i.e. lifting weights in front of the t.v. for 5-10 minutes, is a goal that most can accomplish and stick with vs. the grand goal of working out at the gym 5 days a week. One of my ongoing goals that every time I go to the bathroom at work, i duck into the stairwell (located right near the bathroom) and walk up two or three flights of stairs and back down. That 4-6 minutes of excercise three times a day has done wonders for the firmness of my backside.

My only suggested change to the list, is to #9, give it 4 weeks or 30 days (there is a reason rehab is 28 days).

And finally, don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Just do something and if you forget for a couple of weeks because life gets busy, just start over and keep working away at it.

I’m single, too. I hear what you are saying. You need to make the time to do these things. Make these things as important to you as brsuhing your teeth, eating, or going to the bathroom. You make time to do those, don’t you? It’s just like anything else, you have to want to change, and want to make new habits, for it to work.

You apparently don’t want to do it. But wait…..there is still hope!

Try this: Try making the time to do any two of the things in Dr. Oz’s list – any two you’d like. As he suggested, commit to them for two weeks. For right now, don’t worry about if you’re doing whatever you choose perfectly or ‘the right way’ – just try any two, every day, for just two weeks. Give it a chance – you just might surprise yourself! I bet you will………my money’s on you. Good luck!

James #4, you are overreacting and missing the point of the advice. Clearly, he’s talking about the effects of family night on children. His advice does make sense in the “mundane world” because the “mundane world” is full of parents feeding their children, and believe it or not, full of families – two-parent, single-parent, grandparents, even two childless spouses are a family. What is there that doesn’t make sense? If you’re not in any of those demographics, then you can still take the essence of the advice without whining – cook your food and sit down to eat it. There.

I think Dr. Oz may have added one more if he could and that is to adopt a vegan diet for at least one day a week. He is always telling people to increase their intake of raw fruits and vegetables, loves almonds and raw nuts as protein sources, and he did a whole story on the cattleman who saw dramatic health and lifestyle improvements after just 28 days on a vegan diet! I personally encourage everyone to try this– no meat, no dairy, no animal products– just wonderful green salads, fruit salads, light vegetable stir-frys. Enjoy the health!

I hear you — I smell what you’re cooking. But I guarantee you – I swear to you – these suggestions simply don’t fall under that “one man’s meat is another man’s poison” category. It’s just like anything else that’s important to us, you have to want the change, and want to make new habits, for it to take effect. Looks like you live in the same neighborhood as James, and me, too. I have an apartment in that neighborhood……… but am trying to move out……..

Join us, Thomas, as we take a step outside of that neighborhood. C’mon….Just make the time to do any two or hey, even any one of the things on Dr. Oz’s list – any you choose. Commit to them, or it, for two weeks. Don’t worry about ‘perfect’, or ‘the right way’ – just try it, every day, for just two weeks. I bet you that how you feel about yourself will change – for the better. I’m rooting for you, too. Go get ’em!!

New Year’s resolutions are great! They give you the opportunity to reconnect with dreams, mundane or grand. Even if you don’t keep them this year, or the next few years, articulating them makes a huge difference. And someday you just might find they have stuck. Here are some tips on making (and keeping) resolutions:

My teenage kids are chuckling over this. We do cook together on Sundays, making and packing up lunches and dinners for the rest of the week, which we then eat together – in the car on the way to their endless activities. In order to get into college, kids today have to have a resume a mile long, so they (and I) rarely get more than 3 or 4 hours’ sleep a night, although we try to catch up on the weekends. TV? who the heck has time for that? IF I actually sat still, anywhere but at the wheel, I’d fall asleep. The kids get exercise at sports practices and games; I think I’ll have to come up with a sideline workout for parents! Maybe that’s where yoga comes in!

Thanks Dr. Oz: My new year Resolution will be: totally and Wholeheartly stop Practice “Keep up with the Jonese”
Why pretend and project an image not real?? Friends and neighbors going to find out I am not rich some points down the road anyway. I am sick and tired pretending rich because I am rich in the first place.
Honesty and peace of mind is good for my health.

“Bite off a little at a time…” that goes not only for food, but whatever new habit you want to make. If you bite off a little food at a time, you may eat less. If you do a little exercize more often, chances are you will incorporate it more into your weekly schedule. You’ll soon realize that you can change your routines and you will end up adding to what you’ve been doing. Then you’ll see yourself eating better, and exercising more!

Why people would be against resolutions is beyond me. I don’t imagine anyone is living the life the want to entirely. New Years just gives a time to look back and forward and think about where you’ve been and want to go.

Here’s one of my resolutions: bike to work at least twice per week. If you live too far from work to bike then try doing at least one or two errands a week by walking or biking. This will make a big difference in your health, and reduce pollution.

Re #9: “I hear what you are saying. You need to make the time to do these things.”

No, I don’t think you heard what I was saying at all – besides the obvious fact that eating as a family isn’t really practical for us single people.

My point is that you CAN’T do yoga effectively in seven minutes, any more than you can learn brain surgery in seven minutes. Now as it happens, I’ve done yoga since my teens, and the quickest routine I can manage takes 20-25 minutes.

Most of the remaining suggestions are just as far off-base for me. Keep nuts to snack on? But if I did, I’d probably get into daily snacking. Make space in front of the TV? I’d first have to buy one. Go to bed earlier? Sure, getting sleep is important, but why not get up later, instead of trying to force my night owl body to become a morning lark?

Talathiel (#15): Which college(s) are you and your kids aiming for? I teach at one that must require that long resume, because my students don’t know how to sit still and think for more than 20 minutes. (Not sure if that comes from acquired ADD or sleep deprivation.) But there are lots of good schools out there; my own kids go to some that suit them well, and we did find time to have dinner together several times a week. I suggest Loren Pope’s books, including “Colleges That Change Lives.” Our kids’ time at home was so short — I’m glad that we spent enough of it with them, and not just in the car.